


First Day Back

by jackwantstoseizethedavey



Series: Davey and Spot Reach an Agreement [2]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen, Guilt, M/M, School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 00:15:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10651044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackwantstoseizethedavey/pseuds/jackwantstoseizethedavey
Summary: I’m still working on more with Davey and Spot, so don’t worry I’ll get it up soon….ish. But I finished this one first so here you go.This is about Davey going back to school, and Jack being a caring friend.This is part of the same universe as my other story, so I guess we can call this a prequel of sorts. And this is also available on my Tumblr.





	First Day Back

Davey had lived in denial right up until the moment he actually walked through the gate to school.

His father had returned to work, at a new factory of course, towards the end of September, and once his paycheck had come in, he had announced excitedly that the boys would be returning to school.

The dread in Daveys stomach had stayed all the way through the celebratory dinner they had that night. Not even Jack and Crutchie joining them had made it better, he had barely been able to taste the chicken his mother had bought special that afternoon.

As soon as he had been able, he excused himself to go sit on the fire escape in the waning sunlight.

 

Crutchie had been looking at the math book that Les had pulled out, Les had been so excited to show him everything that he remembered from school, and Crutchie was always such a good sport about listening to Les hop from one topic to another.

Sarah and their father were discussing something from today's pape, and his mother and Jack had been working on starting the family bread for the next day.

 

Davey must have sat there for ten minutes before Jack made his way out and nudged Davey over to sit beside him on the stairs.

“What’s wrong?” He wasn’t sure why Dave had decided to wander off., but he didn’t do it when he felt fine. 

“Nu-nothing, just getting some fresh air.” 

The lie didn’t sound very convincing to his ears, but he wasn’t sure he could put into words just how he was feeling, and he was hoping that Jack wouldn’t push right now.

“Hmmm…” was all he came back with, as Jack leaned so their shoulders were pressing together.

The silence was comfortable, it always was with Jack, not that they had a lot of occasions to be quiet, but whenever it happened, it was nice.

After a few minutes he took a deep breath and made himself say,

“I don’t want to go back.”

Turning to see Jack, he looked confused, like he didn’t understand exactly what Davey was saying.

“What? to school?”

“.......yeah.” he didn’t know if he could continue.

Jack turned back and looked down at his hands, he still had some flour on his knuckles. 

He wasn’t sure what to say to that, Davey should be excited, this was what he deserved, to go somewhere that would help him become something. Jack knew he wasn’t the smartest guy around, but if there was one thing that he was certain of, it was that Davey was going places. 

“...You know you have to Davey…” What else could Dave possibly be expecting him to say? 

“Yeah….I know”, he looked away from Jack, trying not to torture himself with the thought of how often he’d be able to see him in the near future.

Looking at his lap, he let the silence stretch for another couple of minutes before he continued “I wish I was excited,” he needed to get this out to someone. 

“I feel so ungrateful, there are so many people who will never have the chance to go, and I feel so guilty that I don’t want to and it's not fair of me. Sarah would jump at the chance to go back and here I am feeling sorry for myself, over something great.” Maybe if he kept telling himself it was great, he’d be able to convince himself of it.

Davey had always thought it was unfair, Sarah deserved to have every opportunity that he and Les got, and even though that wasn’t the way the world worked, he never really could get past the injustice of it all. 

He always made sure to share everything he learned with her, it always helped him to remember things better, and honestly there were times where she understood his lessons better than he did. And it was always nice to have someone kind go over things with him that he didn’t quite get the first go around. 

There wasn’t anything that Jack could think of to say to that, he didn’t know how he would even start. Davey was just nervous, he would get past it as soon as he went back, Jack was sure of it. 

Jack put his arm around Davey’s shoulders and tugged him close and squeezed for a long minute before letting go, trying to make sure Davey knew that he cared, even if he couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

They sat quietly until Les came to drag them back in for a game of Klondyke on their beat up old copy of the board game. Davey did his best to put the thought of school out of his mind and tried to enjoy the rest of the evening, he would deal with it when he had to.

 

\---one week later---

The day had been horrible, he had thought maybe things would be better because he had been gone for a while. But the reality was that it made him stick out even more, and some of the other boys had been whispering and pointing at him all morning, and by the time lunch had rolled around Davey had had to find an empty classroom so he could sit by himself quietly. 

He somehow managed to push himself through the rest of the day, and when it was time to leave he had been ready to go pickup Les and then go home and lay down for the rest of the evening, homework be damned.

He hadn’t expected Jack to be waiting for him. He had been right by the gate and had called, well more like yelled Davey’s name to make sure he had been seen. It had caused the group he was walking behind to turn and look at him, which had been….well that was just the kind of day he was having.

Davey made his way over anyway, regardless of the attention he was drawing to them, Jack being nearby could never be a bad thing. 

As soon has he was close enough, Jack had slung an arm over his shoulders and tugged him into his side and turned to head towards Les’s school at a slow pace. Davey could feel himself relax as he fell into step beside him, and let the warmth of his arm relax the tight muscles of his shoulders. They walked almost a block before Jack started talking, which Davey appreciated, Jack always when knew to give Davey some quiet time to settle down. 

“So I was thinking that instead of eating with your folks tonight, I would drag you out to eat with Mush and Specs, Blink had to go talk to Spot tonight and Mush is being moody. So I figure you can help cheer him up by finishing that conversation about bees you two were having yesterday before he drives us all crazy.”Jack tightened his arm around Davey’s shoulders for a second before letting go and stopping to dig into his bag. A bag which he should have been returned at the end of the day, but somehow always managed to find it’s way back to the lodging house, regardless of how many times he was told not to. 

Pulling something out, he hid it behind his back and turned to face Davey.

“Guess what I got.” 

Davey wasn’t sure what to make of the grin on his face. And he didn’t think he could muster the energy to play along with a guessing game.

“I have no idea, what do you have?” Davey rubbed at his face and wished Jack would get on with it.

“You have to guess first!” Jack’s indignant look caused Davey to roll his eyes, he could make himself play along for a minute.

“Fine, fine, I’ll guess…..you got a...a parrot.”

Satisfied that Davey was participating, Jack moved on.

“Nope! I got you a present. Hold out your hand.” Jack ordered as his smile got bigger.

Keeping eye contact with Jack, he did as he was asked, wary about what it was going to be, but playing along anyway. It was hard not to be persuaded by that gleeful look on Jack’s face.

The weight dropped into his hand was cool and heavy, and looking down he was surprised to see a beautiful big orange. 

He loved oranges, the smell, the taste, the texture, everything about them was amazing. He couldn’t even remember if he had mentioned anything to Jack, but he was grateful nonetheless for the thoughtfulness. He willed his eyes not to tear up, and stroking the orange peel he asked, 

“Where did you get this?”

“Found it,” giving Davey a sly smile, like he was daring him to speculate otherwise.

He decided he could go along with it, because in all reality, Jack likely bought it while he was out selling and just wanted to ruffle Davey’s feathers. Davey brought the orange up to his nose to smell, and wow, that was amazing, before digging his nails into the peel to start eating. 

“Share?” Davey was trying to control the absolutely stupid grin he could feel attempting to spread over his entire face. He held out a segment to Jack, as they both continued on their way to Les. 

Davey almost never shared an orange with anyone, even his father knew better than to ask for a piece. But having almost lived out of each other's pockets for the past couple of months, Davey didn’t even think twice about splitting it. 

“Course,” Jack took the slice, brushing their figures together as he took it, and then popped it into his mouth with a smug smile and pressed his shoulder into Davey’s a little more firmly. 

Davey could feel his bad mood evaporate, and tried to capture the memory of Jack looking so self satisfied, in the warm afternoon sunshine, with the smell of oranges hanging in the air. It made him wish that he had any artistic talent, because he wasn’t sure that his memory would ever be able to do this moment justice.

Ultimately, between Jack and the orange, and then dinner that night with friends, Davey was able to salvage the day. And when things would get hard at school with his peers, he would think about the fact that if someone as great as Jack wanted to be his friend, then maybe things would be okay.


End file.
